Global shift in green steel projects as major investments move beyond Europe into Asia

The Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) has updated its Green Steel Tracker, a vital tool for monitoring and advancing low-carbon primary steel production worldwide. This latest release reveals a slowdown in new project announcements in Europe, but a wider spread of new investments globally.

Illustration: SEI / Linnéa Haviland
 

Key insights:
 

• The latest data includes nine new projects with only two in Europe, suggesting a global shift in investment.  
• After a surge in project announcements from 2020 to 2021, the pace has slowed. For comparison, there were 36 new investments in 2021 alone.  
• For the first time, a Chinese steelmaker has announced the technology used and detailed its investment in a full-scale green hydrogen direct reduction facility.  
• Hydrogen direct reduction (H-DRI) remains the dominant technology in the Green Steel Tracker.  
• While the tracker features 99 projects globally, not all align strongly with a company strategy to achieve net-zero emission by 2050.

“We see an encouraging trend that green steel investment announcements are spreading globally with more and more projects outside the EU. However, this positive development for green steel needs to further accelerate as new investments in unmitigated coal-based blast furnaces are still being made in growing economies despite their large emissions”, commented Max Åhman, Associate Professor (Docent) and Head of Division, Environment & Energy Systems at Lund University.

The updated Green Steel Tracker, which includes data on all 99 projects, is available for free download on LeadIT’s website. The tool actively monitors publicly announced investments in primary steel production, revealing insights into the evolving landscape of green projects.

Notably, the latest data highlights two new project announcements in Germany, the only new investments in Europe, a region that previously dominated the tracker. In a significant development, China, the world’s largest steel producer, has disclosed for the first time detailed information about a major green steel project. This is an investment of USD 683 million by HBIS Group in a green hydrogen direct reduction (H-DRI) project in Naiman Banner, Inner Mongolia. H-DRI using renewably sourced hydrogen remains the dominant technology in new green steel projects. This trend is evident in the latest project announcements beyond Europe, including a major initiative from Oman aimed at utilizing H-DRI in a location with potential renewable energy sources.   

The data indicates a slight decrease in the pace of green steel project announcements from 2023 to 2024, compared to the boom in announcements from 2020 to 2021.  

Reflecting on this trend, Per Andersson, Head of the LeadIT Secretariat, said, “We observe more new green steel projects being announced outside Europe for the first time. Do we see a growing confidence in technologies demonstrated in Europe in the last few years – maybe?”  

Diving into the renewed methodology

In late 2023, LeadIT refined the Green Steel Tracker methodology to provide users with more detailed information for assessing transparency, trends and developments in low-carbon project announcements across the iron and steel industry. Projects are now categorized based on their level of detail in relation to timeline, planned capacity, investment, technology used and:
 

• potential to achieve at least 85% CO2 emission reductions compared to average steelmaking emissions.
• coal or fossil-based projects that need complementary carbon capture and storage to exceed 50 to 60% emissions reductions, including hydrogen production projects that lack direct ties to iron and steel manufacturing. 

Some projects that were previously included in the tracker which no longer meet the revised methodology, or have seen limited recent traction, have been filtered and transferred to a separate dataset. This restructuring allows users to clearly identify active projects while maintaining visibility on those considered inactive. Inactive projects are still tracked in case of future developments.    

For further details, please refer to the Green Steel Tracker methodology and our comprehensive Q&A, which defines and debunks myths surrounding green steel projects. 

Collaboration to safeguard data

LeadIT is collaborating with experts at Lund University, Sweden to ensure the integrity of data and alignment of data with the tracker methodology. Prior to publication the dataset underwent rigorous review by the Lund University team. This collaboration has enriched the analysis presented in this press release, affirming the tracker's transparency and robustness.

Media contacts

• Eileen Torres Morales, Analyst and Transition Trackers Lead, LeadIT, eileen.torres@sei.org, +46 73 707 85 65 

• Jane Birch, Communications & Impact Lead, LeadIT, jane.birch@sei.org, +46 722 14 96 16 
• Max Åhman, Associate Professor, Lund University, max.ahman@miljo.lth.se, +46 46 222 95 43   
• Jonas Algers, PhD student, Lund University, jonas.algers@miljo.lth.se, +45 60 65 87 81    

About the Green Steel Tracker  

The Green Steel Tracker aims to support decision-makers in policy and industry, academia as well as civil society, by tracking public announcements of low-carbon investments in the steel industry and presenting them transparently in one place.   

About LeadIT 

The Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) was launched by the prime ministers of Sweden and India at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in 2019. LeadIT brings together countries and companies committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions from industry by 2050 and is supported by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The LeadIT Secretariat is hosted by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and manages the work of the Leadership Group.